Assembly members say they'll question the Mayor over the appropriateness of Barclays continuing to sponsor such a high profile scheme at Question Time on Wednesday. With sponsorship so tightly linked into the brand new cable car, is it time to reconsider the strategy of hitching so many high profile transport projects to private companies, with all their potential to go horribly wrong?

According to the Green, Barclays have also been able to suck back £27m from TfL in bank charges.That's effectively more than 50% rebate on an already very advantageous sponsorship deal...

Tim Hardy

When we used #askBoris to raise the same question yesterday he refused to back down about the sponsorship, but had changed his tone towards Barclays, stating: "Barclays has saved taxpayer £50m and if employees have engaged in criminal behaviour then bang em up".

Unfortunately nobody has been able to verify Johnson's claim about the £50m saved because not all the money has been paid and he refuses to answer any questions about if or when it will be.

e3alan

The Boris Bikes, in the nice Tory blue, are a great success. Take their money while we can.

Will

I don't know how many people actually read the content of these articles.

They haven't put in £50m, they have only pledged to 'do so by 2018'. So even the initial £25m is unlikely to have been paid, whilst public funding has actually been used to set up the scheme and local councils have used their budget to provide for the expansions.

Given that there are also reports that they stand to get back £27m of their sponsorship in charges to TFL, their contribution seems even more lightweight. Of course all of this is back-of-napkin calculation since, as accords their firm commitment to public oversight of public money, open government and transparency, the Conservatives + Boris have both refused to publish the actual details of the contract with Barclays.

That the bikes are a great idea is not the issue on the table. I bloody love them. But they seem to represent shockingly bad value for money when the setup/operational costs are considered.